Boteler’s Ford Tablet B. F. 3 - Shepherdstown WV - U.S. Civil War Sites on Waymarking.com

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Boteler’s Ford Tablet B. F. 3
(September 20, 1862)
Early in the morning of September 20, movements were made by General McClellan to ascertain the position of the Army of Northern Virginia. Maj. Charles S. Lovell’s Brigade (1st and 6th, 2d and 10th, the 11th and 17th U. S. Infantry) Sykes’ Division, 5th Corps, crossed the Ford and pushed out on the Charlestown Road. Barnes' Brigade, Morell’s Division, was ordered to cross and move on Shepherdstown. Lovell had gone about a mile and a half on the Charlestown Road when he met the Confederates in force. The Brigade was deployed, about-faced and fell back to the bluffs bordering the river and on either side of the Charlestown Road. The 2d and 10th Infantry were deployed as skirmishers in a belt of woods on the left front. Warren’s Brigade (5th and 10th N. Y. Infantry) Sykes’ Division, crossed at the Ford and formed on Lovell’s left. Barnes, being ordered by Sykes to form on Lovell’s right, suspended his movement on Shepherdstown and went into position west of the mill, 220 yards north of this point. Lovell’s skirmishers and some Cavalry, which had crossed and gone to the front were now pressed back by the advance of A. P. Hill’s Confederate Division and Sykes ordered the entire command to recross the Potomac, which was done in good order by Lovell’s and Warren’s Brigades. The Confederate advance on the part of the line held by them being checked by the fire of Weed’s, Randol’s and Van Reed’s Batteries posted on the heights on the Maryland side of the river. Barnes’ Brigade, the last ordered withdrawn, met with great loss at the mill and on the bluffs and river bank beyond. (Marker Number B.F. 3.)

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Date Logged Log User Rating   01/30/2024 Don.Morfe visited it